Rouge: Substitue Guardian of the Master Emerald
by Blade100
Summary: When Sonic, Knuckles, and the rest of the Sonic gang go to stop Eggman's latest scheme, Rouge attempts to steal the Master Emerald. But her conscious stops her, she ends up becoming the Master Emerald's substitute protector. Ironic, huh? Knouge.


**Arguing With Myself  
**

_Finally! _Rouge skipped closer to the Master Emerald, smiling brightly at the sight of the colossal jewel. _That Knucklehead is gone and he was actually dumb enough to leave the Master Emerald unprotected! _Words could not describe how happy the thief was as she jumped into the air and flew closer to her prize.

"Finally," she whispered, kissing the top of the Master Emerald. She landed on her feet beside the emerald and was about to lift it up when a high pitched voice was heard.

"Don't you dare, Rouge the Bat!"

The beautiful batgirl jumped at the scream, before turning to the source of it, seeing a miniature version of herself on her left shoulder, wearing a white dress with white feathered wings on her back and a glowing halo over her head.

"W-who are you…?" the thief inquired, shocked to see the mini her.

"I'm your conscious! And I'm telling you right now, do not steal that jewel!"

"Ah, don't listen to her! Steal the jewel! Then kick a puppy! BWAHAHAHA!" Rouge looked at her opposite shoulder and found another smaller copy of herself on her shoulder, wearing a red dress with an arrow tail and small horns on her head. "Go! And be a servant of evil!"

"…Let me guess, you're the voice that's supposed to tell me to do bad things. Right?"

"Um…NO! I'm the good one! She's evil! Listen to everything I say! Steal the emerald! Then kick a puppy! Then steal a truck, light it on fire, and drive it into an orphanage! BWAHAHAHA!" the demonic bat giggled, lighting cracking behind her.

"…Where did that lightning come from? There's not a cloud in the sky!"

"FOCUS!" her conscious ordered. "Do not steal that emerald!"

"Why not? And why haven't you ever appeared before?" the real Rouge responded, grabbing the angel in her hand and holding her.

"Yeah! Little miss I-do-the-right-thing-and-help-people-and-stuff!" Suddenly the demonic bat was also grabbed, despite her best attempts to free herself. "Ow! Easy on the grip, lady!"

"Quiet you. Ahem. First off, you can call me Angel, since I'm the angel in you. Aren't I precious?" she asked, looking at Rouge with an unnaturally cutely look.

"NO!"

"Shut it, Demon! Ahem. Well secondly, I've never appeared to you before since I've been okay with most of the things you've done so far."

"Yeah! Stealing things, attacking innocent people, and dressing up as a prostitute is peachy-keen in the eyes of angels!" Demon joked, giggling at her own joke.

"I said shut up, demon-butt!"

"No, you shut up, angel-face!"

"No…You shut up!"

"That's what you're mom said!"

"Oh, you leave my mother out of this, you witch!"

"HEY!" Rouge growled, glaring at the two copies. "Either get to the point or you're both going in the nearest trash can!"

Both whimpered in fear at their bigger self, before Angel continued. "I'm appearing now, because I can't let you do this, Rouge. This isn't how you've dreamed of taking the Master Emerald!"

"How do you know I've had dreams of taking the emerald?"

"Well first off, it's rather obvious. Secondly, I live in your head. I've seen everything you have."

"Me too," Demon added. "I especially like the dream with Knuckles, Shadow, and the pool full of pudding," she smiled, licking her lips and causing both Angel and Rouge to turn red.

"The point is you can't steal the Master Emerald like this! For years, you've dreamed about stealing it from Knuckles after defeating him in a fight! Can you really just take it when he's not looking like this?"

"Of course she can! Do it, Rouge!" Demon ordered.

"Rouge, don't! You'll break poor Knuckles' heart!" Angel pleaded.

"Who cares? If he doesn't like he can come back to your place to get it back," Demon smiled, licking her lips again as she thought of the red echidna.

"Pervert," the good Rouge commented, as the real one sighed.

"How would this break Knucklehead's heart? It's his own fault for leaving it unguarded! Besides, he knows I want the Master Emerald!"

"Yeah! So take that rock and let's go step on some little people! Heheheh!" Demon giggled.

"Maybe he left it unguarded because he has faith in you, Rouge. Maybe he knows deep down, your honor will guide you to leaving this sacred stone alone, at least until he returns," Angel whispered. Her words seemed to reach the thief as she slowly released the two from her grip. "Maybe he believes you're better than you you're self think. Maybe he knows the Master Emerald is safe with you watching over it. Maybe…maybe…maybe he loves you, Rouge…"

"He can love you after you get the Master Emerald!" Demon yelled, kicking Angel aside and pointing at the focus of this story. "You've spent years after that jewel! Are you going to let it slip out of your hands now?"

"No. No, I'm not," Rouge declared. "I told him that all the jewels in the world belong to me and the Master Emerald is no different!"

"Atta girl! Now go get that green gem!" Demon declared, and Rouge nodded, walking towards the Master Emerald and placing her hands on it.

"Okay, fine. Take it. Don't listen to your conscious! But let me ask you two one thing…How exactly do you expect to carry it?" Angel growled.

The two other Rouges' eyes widened and they looked at one another, before looking at the emerald. Rouge tried to lift it up and support it on her legs, but found the floating power source too heavy for her.

"…Well, I'm open to ideas," she sighed, banging her head against the jewel.

"Protect the Master Emerald! Watch over it like Knuckles did for years and earn his respect! His love! Then, get married and live happily ever after with a hundred beautiful babies!" Angel cooed, looking off into the distance.

"…Look, Knuckles is cute in that rugged way, but do you really want to do this? What do you owe him?" Demon asked.

_She has a good point. When has that echidna ever helped her?_ It took seconds for Rouge to answer herself as she remembered the time Knuckles had saved her life when they were at the space station ARK. She would have died if he had not grabbed her hand...

"I don't like that look in your eyes, Rouge. Those are the eyes of someone who wants to do the right thing! STOP IT!" Demon ordered.

The busty beauty sighed and jumped on top of the Master Emerald and sat on the floating rock. "Fine, Angel. You win. I'll keep an eye on **my** emerald, at least until I can think of a way to carry it out of here."

"Or until Knuckles comes back."

"…Or until Knuckles comes back."

"YES! Victory!" Angel giggled, flying into the air and spinning. "Yatta!"

"Hyperactive little floozy," Demon mumbled, before the two vanished in a puff of smoke.

_At least they're gone. Their voices were killing me_, Rouge thought, rubbing her temples. She closed her eyes and sat the Master Emerald, her acute ears scanning the area as she massaged her head. Suddenly her eyes opened and she looked around, coming to a horrible realization. "This is so boring!"

**END**

And there's the first part of this story. I hoped you enjoyed it. This mostly came because of the idea that, 'Rouge doesn't love anyone, she just loves jewels!'

Now I like to think of myself as a decent person…usually….If this is your opinion of her, so be it. This is mine. I believe that Rouge, while greedy at times, is a basically good person. Sure, she has a few rough edges, and she may make the wrong choice now and again, but I think she's a good person in the end.

That and I'm a KnucklesXRouge support. Now I will admit that if ShadowXRouge ends up being canon, then I will accept that. I believe both are very possible, but I just lean to the KnucklesXRouge romance idea. Why? I dunno. Maybe I just like a love-hate relationship.

Goodnight, everybody!


End file.
